CHAMPCAR/CART: Kanaan Laguna Seca open test day two

Tony Kanaan and the ...

Tony Kanaan and the #55 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Mercedes-Benz Reynard
enjoyed a relatively trouble-free second consecutive day of testing at
Laguna Seca Raceway today, finishing with the third-fastest time in the
afternoon and the fourth-fastest time overall. Kanaan toured the
2.238-mile hillside road course in 1 minute, 8.635 seconds (an average
of 117.386 mph) in this afternoon's session to conclude the two-day CART
FedEx Championship Series open test on a high note. Some 23 cars took
part in all. In the morning, Kanaan recorded a 1:08.576 (117.487 mph)
fast lap. Overall on the day, Helio Castroneves set at track record in
the afternoon session to take fast lap honors for the two days. His
time of 1:07.602 (119.180) bested teammate Gil de Ferran, who had the
second-fastest overall time at 1:07.896 (118.664 mph). Patrick
Carpentier, who had the fastest time overall during Thursday's opening
two sessions, had today's third-fastest time overall at 1:08.477
(117.657 mph) to edge Kanaan.

The series resumes next weekend (Oct. 1-3) with the Molson Indy
Vancouver, Round 15 of the 20-race season, and returns here to Laguna
Seca the following weekend (Oct. 8-10) for the Grand Prix of Monterey.

TONY KANAAN

"Hey, what do you know ... we got our first podium of the year in that
afternoon session! That's a good feeling to have on your way out of
town. Things went very smoothly today and I have to say I'm really
looking forward to coming back in a couple of weeks. We've made some
big gains with our motor program, which showed today, and the guys have
really brought the chassis along, too. We tried a few things for the
afternoon's session and, sure enough, they worked. I've got to head
down to Brazil now for a Hollywood event the next few days, but I can't
wait to get back on the plane and make my way to Vancouver for next
weekend's race. Then it's back here at Laguna. I've had some good runs
here over the years and we built up some pretty good momentum that I
hope will carry us through." (Note: Kanaan qualified second here last
year for Forsythe Championship Racing, his second-best career start, and
he won here from the pole in Indy Lights competition in 1996, followed
by a runner-up finish from the pole in his Indy Lights championship
season of 1997.)